Page 65 - All About History 55 - 2017 UK

The House of Kim

Shakier than you
Jong-il (bottom left)
with his family
might think
The Kim dynasty projects an
aura of total control, but there
have been challenges…

The rumours over the years are many and varied:
bodyguards-turned-assassins, army generals starting
coups and fratricidal in-fighting in the clan. But they
have largely been just that — rumours.
Immediately after the cessation of hostilities in
1953, Kim Il-sung showed that he had learned from
Stalin by holding a show trial for a dozen party
officials accused of aiding the Japanese and plotting
to replace him as leader. All 12 were found guilty
Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il are and executed. Whether there was any truth to their
still everywhere in North Korea
collaboration with the Japanese is questionable. A
year later the former leader of the Korean Communist
The Koreans have a proverb: ‘Tiger father, dog more and more common in even privileged
Party in the South moved to the DPRK. He was
son’. It was thought to be whispered by some Pyongyang. But nukes could give Jong-il total deemed a possible challenger. A Moscow-style show
army officers alongside rumours of Jong-il’s power; they were weapons of mass destruction trial was staged and he, too, was executed.
legendary louche life of massive French Cognac that he would control and ones that could Rumours have continued to swirl. In the late 1960s,
consumption, Hollywood movies and mistresses. subordinate the conventional armed forces. The China claimed that Kim Il-sung had been arrested by
Most of those army officers were purged. He Dear Leader, with his finger on the button, was coup-plotting army generals — it wasn’t true. In 1970,
also put on more show trials and sentenced arguably the deadliest man in the world. several senior army commanders were again purged
executions in the style of his father’s reign. There may be many exaggerations about Kim for opposing the Supreme Leader’s policies, while
there have long been rumours of a coup attempt in
The so-called Dear Leader secured total power. Jong-il’s life, but his fondness for mistresses was
1992 by Moscow-trained soldiers.
Across the country, statues and posters went a fact. He had a son in 1971, Kim Jong-nam, with
Kim Jong-il has faced challenges, too. Stories
up showing the two rulers together and North Song Hye-rim, a leading North Korean movie
circulated of a planned coup by army units in the
Koreans pinned the ubiquitous lapel badges actress and beauty. He also had two more sons, famine-stricken northeast region in 1995. In 1998, a
featuring the father and son to their clothes — to Kim Jong-chul in 1981 and Kim Jong-un in 1984, shoot-out between police and soldiers led to a curfew
lose or forget to wear one became a crime. The with Ko Yong-hui. Other mistresses followed in Pyongyang in what, it is assumed, was a direct
king and the prince were on every classroom before he finally married Kim Young-sook, the challenge to Jong-il’s rule.
wall, subway carriage, jacket and street poster. daughter of a high-ranking Workers’ Party leader Coups fomented from outside are rumoured, too.
Jong-il had one more plan to consolidate power and Kim clan loyalist. The George W Bush administration always refused
and ensure no rivals in the army ever rose up and As was the ancient Korean imperial tradition, to rule out a pre-emptive strike on the North, while
the Pentagon’s ‘Operational Plan 5030’ was designed
contemplated a coup: nuclear weapons. He tore the three sons and heirs were brought up
to use South Korea and American troop operations
up every arms control agreement his father had separately, rarely — if ever — meeting, and then
to diminish the DPRK’s resources, wear down their
signed and restarted the North’s nuclear weapons only at state occasions for a matter of moments.
military and promote a coup attempt. But it was
development programme. Yet, as Kim Jong-il increasingly became a sick never put into action.
Billions of won (North Korea’s currency) and dying man, it was to be the battle between And now one more rumour. After purging and
were devoted to the project while the country these three siblings that would almost destroy executing his own uncle, Kim Jong-un was faced with
remained hungry in the North’s desperate the monarchy created by his father and lead to a possible coup led by his exiled half-brother, Jong-
countryside, and power blackouts became exile, feuding and, perhaps, fratricidal murder. nam. That attempt perhaps ended in Kuala Lumpur
International Airport in February.

The North likes to issue dramatic threats, and has done so
regularly throughout its seven decades of existence

Yeonpyeong Island firefights DMZ landmines Anti-ship missiles unveiled
23 November 2010 4 August 2015 8 June 2017
With tensions still high after the ROKS Cheonan sinking, the Confirmation that the DPRK was planting After several rounds of missile tests that provoked the US 7th
North deliberately fired at the South-controlled Yeonpyeong additional and highly explosive landmines Fleet to approach the DPRK’s coast, the North fired anti-ship
Island, killing two South Korean soldiers and two civilians. in the DMZ came with the wounding of missiles into the Sea of Japan. Pyongyang was particularly
The South returned fire, killing ten DPRK soldiers. The South two South Korean soldiers who stepped on unhappy about the US deployment of the Terminal High
evacuated the island for the islanders’ own safety. mines. The North denied planting them. Altitude Area Defense anti-ballistic missile shield around Seoul.

The sinking of ROKS Cheonan Drone wars Yeoncheon missile attacks
26 March 2010 24 March 2014 20 August 2015
This is perhaps the closest the North and South have come to The South accused North Korea of flying drones In a highly provocative attack, the DPRK fired conventional missiles at the
renewed war. The South Korean warship ROKS Cheonan was close to the Blue House in Seoul. DPRK drones southern city of Yeoncheon, home to 46,000 people. Citizens were evacuated
sunk by an explosion thought to be from the North, though were shot down at sea, close to the South’s capital, into specially built bunkers, and South Korean artillery fired several times back
Pyongyang denied it. 104 crewmembers were killed or injured and flying across the DMZ to spy on South Korean into the DPRK. High-level talks were convened immediately to de-escalate the
and there were demonstrations of anger and grief in Seoul. and American military installations. tension, though the North failed to explain why they acted as they did.
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